Relatively new host giving advice

[Lulu81]

Hello

My name is Lulu. I’m a relatively new host and felt the need to start a thread for anybody looking for advice when starting to host. 
Honestly, most of my experiences have been quite wonderful, people come from all states and respect the rules. 
One thing I have been perplexed by is the amount of stains on linens

I purchased brand new linens and both of my sets of sheets and about 40% of my towels have been very quickly stained by guests. What are these stains?.... go figure. No clue. Never in my life, have I created stains of the sort I see while hosting, on my own home towels. 
I was given the advice, before I started hosting, to have white linens since you can bleach them. I bought Lacoste white towels and I have been left in awe as to the extent of irreparable staining that occurs after about your second-third guest. Brown rusty looking stains on a good percentage of them. What are people doing to cause these stains?? No clue. Truly. 
I have used chlorox, oxi clean to repair them and a good portion of them never clean up, therefore, I can’t put them back up on the towel rack. So sad. 
Also I have had 2 high end sets of sheets on the queen bed I have get greasy stains on the 1st-3rd EVER use, when they were new to begin with. I have soaked them for hours using methods found on the web to no avail.   
I truly do not understand the reason or the human habits/conditions that might be causing this damage 

I truly wish that I knew this beforehand so I can at east be mentally prepared for that 

Another thing I learned is how much I was to learn to despise providing washclothd for guests.  Sometimes I am confused as to whether to wash or discard the ones with heavy brown extensive stains on them. I’m still trying to gauge if that is a practice I will continue.  
As for everything else. There is a substantial amount of guests asking for early check in. I found that to be weird (yet realistic) because I have never in all my travels made assumptions that I had that possibility. 
After the amount of requests I have received, I have added a rule I never expected/wanted to enforce: 

$25 fee if early check in is >2 hours early. 
As of every other aspect of hosting, I have found that most guests are a pleasure to deal with and that they respect the home and leave it orderly. 
Do provide any insight or advice on how you guys deal with these kinds of shenanigans. I would truly appreciate it. 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Lulu81  Stains on sheets and towels are part and parcel of hosting. So it's a matter of you learning all the methods of stain removal. There are a few threads already on this forum you should be able to find with a site search.

It's a waste of money to buy expensive linens and towels. Of course you don't want to provide chintzy ones that get pilly after a couple of washings, but it's possible to find decent quality stuff at reasonable prices. You can also order, online, black washcloths that have "make-up" embroidered on them, which should help with the washcloth staining issue.

The brownish-rust colored stains may be blood. Blood comes out very easily by soaking first in cold water and pouring hydrogen peroxide on the stain. Hot water sets protein stains like blood into the fabric so it will ever come out.

There is one thing that hosts say stains and can't be removed- acne medication. I think it appears as a yellowish stain, but not sure about that. 

[Lulu81]

Hi @Sarah977

thanks so much for your thorough response 

it’s great to know that if in the case of blood, peroxide and cold water might help. Truly thanks for that advice. 
I will try it with 2 towels tomorrow and see what are my results.  I will update on them to see if it was blood or is it still a mystery 

As for the black make up towels. I bought and received and are currently taking on that experiment. I truly hope that helps. 

Thanks for your advice. It’s really appreciated

[Sarah977]

@Lulu81  If you've already washed those items in hot water, the cold water/peroxide won't work, as the hot water has already cooked the stain into the fabric. It has to be done when the stain is just fresh on the fabric.

I use colored sheets and towels, myself. But a friend who hosts and uses white towels swears by the packs of white towels available at Costco. She says she doesn't know why, but everything seems to wash out of them.

[Lulu81]

@Sarah977 
super! Thanks!  I will attempt it tomorrow. I truly appreciate your advice. 
COSTCO is unfortunately too far fro me but I will try to order online. It might be worth it. 
thanks for sharing all you know. It could be saving me/us 100s if not 1000s of dollars in the long run. 
have a good night

[Katrina79]

@Sarah977 I use the white Costco towels as well. They can take a beating and a lot of Bleach! The only time I have to retire a towel is if strings start to fray or they tear! They really do go through many washes and bleach, so eventually they will break down. A six pack sells for under $30 here, and the nice thing is all my towels match. I have an extra brown set I leave in a closet and half the time guests use those...I’m guessing some guests are worried they will wreck the white ones. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Lulu81 Re early check ins  late check outs: We allow these if we don't have anyone immediately before or after a guests reservation. It costs us nothing and generates good will.

[Lulu81]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

Hi 

of course. I didn’t mind much either until I had a family wanting to show up 8 hours early, which I though was sort of a stretch, still allowed them since I thought... goodwill..... yes, that makes the world go around. 
Upon checking out, the left my place so so dirty and full of crumbs everywhere, cookies in between bed linens. Splatters on the walls and kitchen door. I was so confused and honestly, they ruined my idea of goodwill. That’s just the truth. One person, sometimes ruins it for everyone, which is sad.  
I will see what I do as my hosting journey continues, since like I said, most people are wonderful 

[Sarah977]

@Lulu81   Guests who ask or pressure you to bend your rules (8 hour early check-in is outrageous- they should have been told to pay for an extra night) seem to almost always turn out to be bad guests. When they make their first demands, that's a red flag- they don't care about anything but their own convenience and are being disrespectful of you.

Learn to politely but firmly say no. Hospitality doesn't mean caving to every guest's demands or wishes. You are running a business, sticking to your rules is just professional, not nasty. "I'm sorry, but as is evident in my listing info, I don't provide use of a washing machine. There's a laundromat just down the block. "I'm sorry, but I can't possibly accommodate an early check-in, as I have other guests checking out tomorrow and need time to clean (even if you don't, really)."

There's nothing wrong with going out of your way to help out nice guests who show appreciation, but you don't know if they are those kind of guests until they are already in residence.

[Cathie19 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Lulu81.

I agree with @Sarah977 that a guest asking for an extended period of time is either naive, clueless or pushy. A hotel/ motel will not allow such variations  in times without charging a fee.

Bag storage or drop off is something different with documented choices noted and agreed upon. (Example: checkout must still happen; bags not left in the space, interfering with cleaning. Same with early arrival.) 

I actually charge a half day rate if someone wants to stay 4-12 hours longer, or arrive 4-12 hours earlier.

I do this by discussing it with the booking guest that I will offer them a half day rate, then if agreed, I go to the calendar and make the daily rate $ change. Then send them a reservation change of date/s, which requires them to accept, or it doesn’t happen. The time for arrival and or checkout will be documented so there can be no misunderstanding.  Anything under or over two hours is totally dependant on my goodwill and space, cleaning requirements.

[Emiel1]

@Lulu81 

If nothing helps to remove a stain on white fabrics, then there is a final tric: put some anti-mould on it (the spray normally used to remove mould in, for example, the bathroom like: https://hg.eu/uk/products/hg-mould-spray) and let it dry. Apply not to much, otherwise not only the stain, but also the fabric is gone..... 

Best regards,

Emiel

[Mark116]

@Lulu81  Some people swear by white towels, but I find they get dingy very quickly even with bleach.

As for the stains, I've had good luck getting greasy stains out of sheets using Shout and hot water, although sometimes it takes as many as 3 washing.

Nothing will save the towels/sheets that get the weird bleach stains, which is from some face/skin product.

I think the brown stains must be either make up or some type of self tanner?  

Yes, peroxide and cold water will work wonders on blood, really.

We started buying the absolute cheapest wash clothes we could find in black and white and those are now rolled up in a basket in the bathroom for use as face/make up removers and we added a box of disposable make up wipes, this has helped but not totally eliminated the ruinous bleach stains on the towels and sheets. 

[Huma0]

@Lulu81 

Yes, I was pretty shocked at how stained guests left my towels especially (and also sometimes the linens). I do wonder if they do that at home. I doubt it, because they would then be having to replace them, although a lot of those guests are quite young, so maybe they are used to someone else doing their laundry. I mean, who does this at home??

However, the only stains I couldn't get out were some weird black ones. I think it was actually black shoe polish (too large to be mascara) but the guests were so nice, I cant believe they would have used my brand new set of towels to polish their shoes!

The peroxide + cold water works on blood, but I've also found Shout spray on stain remover to be effective on most stains and dishwashing liquid is good for getting rid of greasy ones, especially on coloured or delicate fabrics you don't want to use strong chemicals on.

I started putting packets of inexpensive (but for sensitive skin) make up wipes in the room and I stick a little label on them asking guests to please use them instead of towels. It seems to have done the trick. I very rarely get make up stains on towels now, not even the washcloths. 

RE early check ins, I used to be really accommodating about this in the beginning and it was no trouble with some guests, but I had far, far too many guests taking advantage of this, e.g. asking to check in early and then leaving me waiting for hours or saying they just wanted to drop off bags and then refusing to leave when I was still in the middle of cleaning. Since then, I have become really strict about it and I remind every guest when they book that they need to specify an arrival time within the check in window. I will make exceptions, but only when it is convenient for me and the guest asks very nicely. Checking in eight, nine hours early is an absolute no.

[Cathie19]

I also do a combination of white towel sets and a dark set per person.

I also supply make up remover wipes, but you can’t make them use them.

[Lulu81]

@Mark116 

Thanks for the advice. It truly helps. I will run to get some SHOUT ASAP.